Four billion a day. That’s how many YouTube videos are viewed every 24 hours. (Sources cited below)
That should be almost enough reason to be in on the YouTube game. But that’s not all. Google owns YouTube. YouTube videos consistently come get high page rankings, and 70% of adults have watched videos or listened to music on YouTube.
You probably have some video content somewhere in your business. I’ve talked about ways to use your videos here. Today I want to give you 7 tricks that will help you make the most of your videos, and dominate YouTube.
Use “Headlines” as your video titles
Your title should make viewers want to see the video. The secret to writing a magnetic title is the same as writing a headline: Self-interest and curiosity. Magazine writers have known how to do this for decades–their livelihood depended on getting viewers to read their articles.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just look at the headlines of any popular magazine or blog, and use them as templates. Copyblogger calls this the “Cosmo Technique.” This article has a templated title: “12 Brilliant (and Slightly Badass) Ways to ____________________.”
Energize your YouTube videos with frequent visual change
The human eye naturally flicks around. If there is movement and change in your video, you can hold your viewer’s attention longer. If you have a person speaking for more than a few seconds, change the angle of the camera-show the speaker from the front, slightly to the side, up close, from a distance.
If you’re using still photos, try zooming in and out, use varying transitions, and try to change images frequently.
Emphasize your core message in every video
I always help my clients come up with one to five key points that are at the core of their business. Every bit of content you produce should include a core message. Your flagship video should emphasize the core above everything else.
Here’s why. Your tweets have a half life of less than an hour. But viewers will still see your video years from now. You’re going to spend a lot of resources to make it, so you should focus on timeless concepts to get the most value.
Include unique tags to protect yourself from tag parasites
One of the infuriating things about marketing on YouTube is that when someone watches your video, YouTube will recommend other videos. Often these are your competitor’s videos. I suspect there are “tag parasites” who take advantage of popular, well-made videos by using the same tags to promote their own shoddy work.
If you’ve got multiple videos, you can tag them so they recommend your other videos. I have a two-step secret to doing this. First, have your company name as a tag in every video you produce. Second, spell your entire company name backwards and use this as a tag in every video as well.
Don’t forget the keywords!
You’ve probably done some keyword analysis for your business. Your keywords are just as important for YouTube as they are for your web pages. Make use of keywords in your transcript (see tip #7 below) as well as in your tags and in the video description. SEO applies to your videos just as much as to your website.
Include urls in the video
When you first create the video, make sure your company and your website are clearly identified in the video itself (usually at the end). At the very least, have your URL pasted across the screen and have your company name and logo in a prominent place. This will save you if someone embeds your video on another website without the links and description.
Once you’ve done this, you should also have some live links. In the description section, the first thing you should have is a link to the page you would like viewers to visit.
You can also annotate the video to have links right in on the screen, although viewers can easily disable these. If you’re going to do this, make sure they don’t cover up any critical elements of the video.
Include the entire video transcript in description underneath
By putting the full video transcript in the description section, you get some extra SEO juice out of keywords. This also enables YouTube to put closed captions in your video for the hearing impaired. You’ll get good karma, more views, and an all-around advantage for your efforts.
In fact, fill your description section with explanations, links, key words, and a call to action. Most users just post the video with a few sentences underneath.
Just Get Started
The great thing about making YouTube videos is the snowballing effect. The more videos you post, the more impact each individual video can have.
Your homework is to make your first video and post it. Just get started if you haven’t already. YouTube is the new press release.
Sources:
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/youtube-statistics/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/291018/us-users-who-use-youtube-to-watch-or-listen-to-music/
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About Jacob Bear In a digital world filled with endless distraction, the key to success is to become so excited about something that you attack every obstacle and light up the path for your followers. As a copywriter and marketing coach, Jacob has been guiding entrepreneurs to uncover their unique story since 2006. In his new talk, “Finding Your Fire,” he shows you how to cultivate a sense of adventure that brings energy and originality to everything you do. His free Social Media Cheat Sheet shows you how to create authentic, perpetual content in nine steps. You can find the Cheat Sheet and other tools at JacobBear.com/FreeStuff.
